Hi people,
I usually wait three months before I make the jump to the next version of Windows, and I finally decided to install 2004. I clicked on the install button at 10:53pm and it finished at 3.10am.
I'm just wondering if any other people had such a lengthy install process?
I'm beginning to think if I had fresh installed from ISO and spent the laborious process of re-installing all my programs I still would have managed it more promptly.
You may want to wait even longer, there are many complaints about 2004, where as 1909 is sound
Hi, if you care to search the forum there are a couple of long threads where upgrade times are compared (for previous builds). Some report 8 hours or more. Perhaps can be shorter if you choose not to accept updates as part of the upgrade process.
Last edited by dalchina; 30 Aug 2020 at 02:43.
Did you update to 2004 by clicking 'download and install' in Windows Update? If so, that is possibly the slowest way to upgrade. An in-place upgrade using the ISO is quicker, and still keeps all your files and programs.
The time varies according to your processor power and speed of the hard drive (HDD or SSD). I got similar times to you when I timed the update my System One to 2004...
How long does the 2004 upgrade take using Windows Update?
Actually it was no slower than when the same machine updated to 1903. I gave an explanation of why WU can take so much longer here:
How long does the 1903 upgrade take using Windows Update?
TLDR: ...because it uses the Unified Update Platform (UUP).
It depends on a few things.
I recently updated to version 2004 on 2 PCs. One was an ancient laptop (circa 2008) on Wifi that took about 4 hours. The other was a more modern desktop (System #2 in my Specs) on Ethernet that took less than 2 hours. Both were installed directly from Windows Update. Both installs went fine and I can report no problems.
I typically jot down the time it takes on these big updates, here is what I have for these two machines:
Getting things Ready: 6min LT Laptop - 4 minutes DT Desktop
Downloading: 40 min LT - 3 min DT
Installing: 90 min LT - 60 min DT
Restarts, Working on Updates, "Almost there": 2hr 10 min LT - 15 min DT
Summary: On desktop: 4.5 Hrs Laptop, 1.4 Hrs Desktop
I'll be doing a newer laptop and a newer desktop in the next few weeks. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
That sounds typical. As I said earlier, an in-place upgrade using an ISO will be faster than Windows Update - typically finishing in 50-60% of the time WU would take on the same spec machine.
Windows Update has to do far more processing than an ISO update. This is because it uses the Unified Update Platform (UUP). This is designed to reduce the download size of an update by only downloading the changes, not the full set of files as are used in the ISO. With an ISO you just replace the old system files with new ones, but UUP works by applying patches to the old files to create the new ones. The end result is exactly the same though.
How long does the 2004 upgrade take using Windows Update?
Understood. I was just answering the OP's primary question about how long this takes and is it normal to take so long.
Regarding the ISO install, isn't in possible to do an in-place upgrade that would not require reinstalling all his programs? He seems to think that is the only possibility with ISO.
In-place with an ISO preserves his apps, files, and most tweak settings.
Timings are relative. I have a pretty well loaded up machine and my specs are listed. OS and all user files is about 32GB. An in-place for me runs 25-30 minutes. I always choose to get updates as part of the process, otherwise I'll have to do the cumulative at the end anyway. Only .Net and maybe a Flash update are additional here.
Last edited by f14tomcat; 30 Aug 2020 at 10:53.
Yes, I used the "download and install" in Windows Update.
One thing I did notice is that if you have Scheduled Optimisation off (which I do), it is turned backed on again after the version update.
- - - Updated - - -
The getting things ready and downloading phases didn't take that long. It was mainly the Installing and working on updates parts.
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